Ardern, high-profile New Zealand leader, stepping down next month

SEOUL — New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who won unaccustomed global prominence for her political and personal accomplishments while in office, said in a shock announcement Thursday that she would be stepping down on Feb. 7.

Ms. Ardern’s handling of the challenge of climate change and the COVID-19 crisis earned her plaudits and detractors. She also made global headlines for giving birth while in office.

Her announcement will generate frenzied political activity in capital Wellington as her left-of-center Labor Party chooses a new premier from within their ranks on Sunday. The country’s general election is set for October 2023.

“I know what this job takes, and I know that I no longer have enough in the tank to do it justice,” she told reporters at a press conference.

New Zealand bestrides an important geostrategic location between the South Pacific and Antarctica. The longtime U.S. ally is one of a number of states in the region struggling with how to deal with a rising and increasingly assertive China.

Ms. Ardern “has shown the world how to lead with intellect and strength. She has demonstrated that empathy and insight are powerful leadership qualities,” fellow center-left Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said after Ms. Ardern’s unexpected announcement.

She won office in 2017 and subsequently won reelection in 2020. She was noted for not only giving birth to her daughter, Neve, but also taking maternity leave — reported as a first for a global leader.

Presentable and youthful, she was widely seen as a master communicator and astute user of social media, credited with igniting “Jacindamania.” A repeat guest on Stephen Colbert’s late-night TV show, she addressed Harvard University and even graced the cover of British Vogue.

But her tenure was marked by some serious policy challenges as well.

Her anti-COVID-19 policies were decisive but controversial, including early border closures and lockdowns. Supporters say they helped limit the costs of the pandemic, though they sparked inevitable domestic criticisms. She was forced to abandon a strict zero-tolerance strategy as more contagious variants spread and vaccines became widely available, but the restrictions she backed sparked vigorous protests from anti-mandate groups.

She denied the furor sparked by her pandemic policies played a role in her decision Thursday.

“I don’t want to leave the impression that the adversity you face in politics is the reason that people exit,” she said. “Yes, it does have an impact. We are humans after all, but that was not the basis of my decision.”

In 2019, after an Australian white supremacist killed 51 Muslims in Christchurch in mass shootings at two mosques, Ms. Ardern donned a hijab, embraced family members of victims and spoke of the need for inclusion and the repudiation of extremism. She pushed through a ban on semi-automatic weapons and reform firearms laws because of the tragedy.

She also won kudos from climate activists for her government’s environmental policies.

But as New Zealand, like much of the world, struggles with inflation and economic woes, her ratings have dropped this year. She denied Thursday she was stepping aside in part because of fears she faced defeat in the coming general election.

As prime minister, she personally held the national intelligence portfolio but took a nuanced stance on relations with China.

In May 2021, Wellington declined to join the U.S. and other members of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance of countries in a statement condemning China’s treatment of its Uyghur ethnic minority. Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said New Zealand “felt uncomfortable” with the move, sparking criticism in Australia and Britain.

One New Zealand Army officer confided that though he personally supported Ms. Ardern, he was uncomfortable that his country was falling out of lockstep with its traditional allies.

Later in 2021, Ms. Ardern would admit that differences with China, the country’s largest export market, were “becoming harder to reconcile” and that “China’s posture has changed in many ways.” Beijing’s recent push to cultivate alliances and access among South Pacific island nations set off alarm bells in Wellington as well.

Meeting President Biden in Washington just days after Beijing signed a cooperation pact with the Solomons, she agreed to upgrade security cooperation due to the “growing strategic competition” in her region.

Some critics say the Ardern government has been slow to react to the China challenge.

“It reflects New Zealand’s position, which is more distant from threats in the region,” said Jeffrey Robertson, an associate professor of diplomatic relations at South Korea’s Yonsei University. “It is always a bit slower to come to terms with threats in the region.”

Still, Wellington wields regional influence.

“New Zealand has a lot of individuals who come from the South Pacific, and send money back home, within the country,” said Mr. Robertson, an Australian who has studied in New Zealand. “And many people from the South Pacific are educated there, so it plays an important role.”

New Zealand has joined Biden’s 2022 Indo-Pacific Economic Partnership for Prosperity. But it is party neither to the 2021 AUKUS (Australia-U.K.-U.S.) alliance that will provide nuclear submarines to Canberra, nor to the “Quad” (Australia, India, Japan, U.S.) security dialogue.

“Having a security bloc at their back to which they are not party, despite being a South Pacific power, I think caused some consternation in the Ardern administration,” Alex Neill, a regional security consultant based in Singapore, said of AUKUS.

Ms. Ardern said she would stay on as a lawmaker through the October election but had no immediate professional plans after that. She did have some unfinished personal business to attend to after her planned wedding to fiance Clarke Gayford was postponed amid the COVID-19 global shutdown.

“And so to Neve, Mum is looking forward to being there when you start school this year,” Ms. Ardern said. “And to Clarke, let’s finally get married.”